Sleep Deprivation and Small Evils
by arinhel.melleide
Summary: 'He looked very concernedly at the number of small fluffy objects and—was that a crib!..."Luke and Germaine are at that dinner at the White House tonight, but their nanny is sick." The fake smile on her face hurt to look at. "I, like the idiotic martyr that I am, agreed to watch my two-month-old niece, Lily, for the night." '
1. Chapter 1

_A/N:_ _So, as we all know there was a criminal lack of Aaro-I mean Gareth in episode 5, hopefully this piece of fluffy nonsense will fill that void XD_

 _I do not own, nor shall I ever own CBS's_ BrainDead _, there would be a lot more of Aaron Tveit's face if I did..._

* * *

Around seven o'clock on a Saturday evening, Gareth knocked at Laurel's door. He was slightly concerned by the noises he could hear from the other side of the door. He waited. Knocked again, and waited.

Third time, he knocked louder. "Laurel? Everything okay?" There was a small crash and what sounded like a yelp from Laurel, and then it was silent for a moment. As he started to knock a fourth time, the door was wrenched open by a harried looking Laurel. She was covered in a white, powdery substance, there was a splotch of a similarly colored liquid on her blouse, and a damp towel was wrapped around her wrist.

"Gareth, thank God you're here!" She hugged him one-armed, but still a little more enthusiastically than he expected.

"Hi Laurel," he greeted, giving in to the urge to hug her back.

"Oh God, I thought I was going to go insane, doing this by myself." She seemed to be mostly talking to herself, and Gareth's curiosity got the best of him.

"Why is there a wet towel around your wrist?" He asked as he gently took hold of her arm and pulled off the towel. There was what appeared to be a mild burn, and he was about to ask how it happened when she waved him off.

"Never mind that, I need your help." She whispered as she dragged him into the apartment, closing the door behind him. He looked very concernedly at the number of small fluffy objects and—was that a crib?!

He turned to her with a wide-eyed look. "What's going on Laurel? Your voicemail said to come to your apartment and that it was an emergency?" He had a sneaking suspicion why, but he hoped that he was wrong.

He and Laurel had come to a truce over the last few months—especially after the bug incident. If one of them really needed help with something, it was given with no judgement or back-stabbing. They would also occasionally—often—fool around as stress relief, no real strings attached—so many strings—and they had settled into a routine. Until now, at least.

"Luke and Germaine are at that dinner at the White House tonight, but their nanny is sick." The fake smile on her face hurt to look at. "I, like the idiotic martyr that I am, agreed to watch my two-month-old niece, Lily, for the night." She sighed. "Though I did manage to wrangle a donation for my documentary from him before they left."

"Laurel." He put a warning tone in his voice. "I really hope you didn't call me for the reason I think you called me. Because if you did, I'm going to turn around and walk out of this apartment." He took a few steps back.

"No-no-no! Please Gareth! Everyone else said they were busy and I knew you weren't doing anything this weekend!" She grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back into the room.

"Laurel, I know next to nothing about kids, except what I remember from when my sister was born!" He backed up again, but didn't shake her hand off.

Their whisper argument went on for a little while, with him backpedaling, and her pulling him forward with each new reason. He weirdly started to enjoy himself; that is, until he slipped on the wet towel he had unknowingly dropped to the floor when he saw her burn. He fell with a loud thud, but had the wherewithal not to curse out loud.

They both held still, in the age-old terror of adults having possibly woken a sleeping child, and they both let out a breath at the continued silence.

Unfortunately, as Gareth got up, a toy he had fallen onto let out a loud—yet adorable—squeak. Immediately, cries emanated from the crib beside the couch. Laurel ran straight for it, making shushing noises as she picked up her niece.

"Your apartment is really shitty for doing this by the way." Gareth said as he stood up and truly surveyed the scene of carnage that was once Laurel's neat and tidy apartment. "It's too open."

"Oh, be quiet, and watch your language in front of Lily." He raised an eyebrow at her. "And are you offering yours up for this treatment? Cause my brother won't suspect anything if you do that." She rocked her niece back and forth, rubbing soothing circles on her back, glaring over her head at Gareth.

He shook his head as he pulled off his suit jacket and tie, and threw them on the back of the couch. He moved closer, rolling up his sleeves, and heard her singing lowly, while the baby still cried. He watched the scene of complete domesticity he had found himself in with a small smile. He shook his head, realizing that he had been standing there like an idiot for a couple minutes.

"Why don't I take her? I know how to hold a baby, though that's the extent of my knowledge." He held out his arms for Lily. "You can finish the bottle I assume you were making when I came in?" Laurel thought about it for a moment and moved to hand over the baby girl.

Unfortunately, as soon as she was in Gareth's hands, Lily started bawling again. True screams of infant distress that shattered any illusion of peace.

Laurel immediately pulled her niece back. "Okay, maybe I'll just hold onto her for now." As soon as Gareth's hands left the baby, the cries returned to manageable levels.

"Oh, come on, Laurel. Of course she's gonna start crying harder when you're in the middle of the hand-off. Let's try again, and actually let me hold her this time?" He raised his arms again, gesturing for her to hand the baby over.

"Fine, here." She gave an exasperated sigh. "Oh, watch her head!" Once again, as soon as she was in Gareth's hands the baby started to cry even harder. She didn't settle even when Gareth tried rocking her.

"What's wrong? What's the matter, little girl?" He tried talking soothingly, but nothing calmed her down. Laurel decided to take her back, to save what remained of their ear drums. The second Gareth was no longer touching her, Lily stopped bawling.

Laurel furrowed her brow and tilted her head. Gareth always thought she was adorable when she did that, but then she took his hand and put it on the baby. The baby started bawling, and she removed his hand and she slowed to gentle hiccupping cries. She repeated the process a couple more times, with the same results. They looked at each other for a couple seconds, before Laurel started giggling quietly.

"I guess she really is her father's daughter." She managed to get out between giggles. "She hates republicans!" Lily stopped crying altogether on hearing her aunt's laughter, but she didn't smile. As soon as Laurel stopped laughing the crying started again.

Gareth sighed, feeling somehow emasculated. "So, I'll be making the bottle then."

Laurel and Gareth spent the next two hours trying to figure out what causing poor Lily to keep crying. They tried everything they could think of, and almost anything that the internet suggested.

They tried feeding her a bottle—he could hear Laurel snickering the entire time—but she would just turn her head away and continue crying.

They changed her diaper. Well, Laurel did and Gareth just handed her everything she needed, while trying not to breathe, but there hadn't been anything anyway.

Laurel tried burping her while Gareth looked up different ways to do it. Lily had burped, but then she just cried harder. Gareth thought it was because she scared herself, which was a cute thought, and they would have laughed if there hadn't been a crying baby.

They tried putting her back in the crib to try to get her to sleep, with disastrous consequences. As soon as she was out of Laurel's arms, the crying intensified to screaming and Laurel immediately picked her back up.

The only thing that stopped the crying—only for a couple minutes—was when Gareth made funny faces, and played peek-a-boo with her. Whenever he glanced up at Laurel in triumph at stopping the cries, she had this unreadable expression on her face. It made his heart stutter a little.

By nine o'clock, they were both at their wits end and Laurel was about to get her phone to ask Germaine for help, but Gareth called to her from the couch where he sat with her laptop.

"We haven't tried swaddling her." He tilted his head all the way back over the couch to look at her.

Laurel looked back at him, a confused expression on her face. "What do you mean? She's wrapped in a blanket already, isn't that swaddling?"

"Not according to just about every website, or YouTube video I've checked. There's a specific method involving a bouncy chair, too, that, apparently, babies love. Reminds them of the womb or something." She walked over to watch the instructional video, gently bouncing Lily as she did. It was the only way to keep the cries to their minimum volume.

"Huh, you know I think they left me that bouncy seat." She sounded so tired, and he could tell that she was barely able to stand upright.

"Alright, I'll bring the laptop over to the table and restart this video. You can try swaddling her."

"Go look by my bed for the bouncy seat; that's where Luke set up the crib initially, but it was too close to the windows for my tastes." They both shuddered, remembering what had nearly happened that spring.

"Good choice."

Turned out, that was exactly what Lily had needed. As soon as Laurel had her swaddled the cries slowly diminished, coming to a complete stop when she secured the baby in the seat. She was still awake, but just barely.

Gareth's ears rang with the silence that descended on the apartment, and he watched Laurel sag with relief. She immediately sank into the couch, her eyes closing in relief. He moved the bouncy seat onto the floor in front of the couch making faces at Lily. The little girl finally giggled sleepily back at him. He looked to Laurel to share the triumphant moment as he sat down next to her, but she was already asleep.

Gareth figured out he could keep the seat rocking by applying the smallest amount of pressure to the base. He leaned back, put his arm around Laurel's shoulders and closed his eyes with a sigh.

Senator Luke Healy stepped stealthily into his sister's apartment a couple hours later to pick up his daughter. His attitude had changed once he held Lily for the first time. Luke's whole world now revolved around the tiny little person he had created with his wife, and he wanted to spend every moment that he could with both of them—even if it meant serious sleep deprivation.

He had sent a few texts and left a voicemail to tell Laurel that he was on his way, but hadn't gotten a response and assumed she had fallen asleep.

The first thing Luke saw was his baby girl sleeping contentedly in the bouncy seat and he broke into a smile. But then he saw the foot that was making it rock, and he looked up.

 _I KNEW IT!_ He shouted internally, fist pumping the air. Laurel and Gareth were snuggled together on the couch, resting their heads on each other looking, for all the world, like exhausted new parents. He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo, making sure to get Lily in as well.

After his evil deed was done, he carefully transferred his daughter into her car seat, left a note on the table for Laurel, and walked out with the most self-satisfied smirk to have ever graced his face.

* * *

 _Hope you like it! Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Let me know :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Why can't I make a legitimate one-shot anymore...Though you could argue this is an epilogue as opposed to a true second chapter? Yeah, I got no leg to stand on there..._

 _I do not own, nor shall I ever own CBS's_ BrainDead _, there would be a lot more of Aaron Tveit's face if I did..._

* * *

There was a soft shuffling, then a louder click which slowly drew Laurel from her unconscious state.

The first thing she noticed upon waking, was that she had a terrible crick in her neck. The next thing she noticed, she was resting on a person, not her pillows in her bed, but she didn't panic because she recognized the smell. It reminded her of Old Spice, but she knew he never used it. It's just, that was what he smelled like. She smiled, snuggling deeper into Gareth's arms. It was still dark; she could take a little more time to enjoy the feeling. His grip around her waist tightened just a fraction in response to her movement.

She always enjoyed these moments, when neither of them was fully awake and she could pretend they were a normal couple. It rarely happened because they usually couldn't afford sleeping-in whenever they had a 'sleepover'.

Her bliss was broken when she remembered why Gareth was in her apartment in the first place. Pushing off his chest, Laurel looked around her still dark apartment for her infant niece, in a panic. The man under her groaned at the abuse, but steadied her with his hands around her waist anyway. He tried to pull her back down and turn over to go back to sleep no doubt, but Laurel pulled back.

"What's wrong?" His voice was rough from sleep, but the concern—that was always present whenever he asked this question—was still clear.

"Where's Lily?" Gareth's eyes shot open in a panic and he sat up with her, nearly knocking her off the couch in the process. He looked over to the bouncy seat and then the table and he let out a breath. Reaching over, one arm still around Laurel from steadying her, he snatched something from the table.

"It's a note from your brother," he said, relieved. "It says that you need to learn to check your phone?" He looked up at her confused.

"Oh, God, there must be a dozen panicked calls from him and Germaine!" She got up, retrieved her phone and sat back down on Gareth's lap, his arms circling her in what seemed an automatic gesture. "I can't believe I fell asleep when I was supposed to be watchi—" She almost dropped her phone when she saw the last text from her brother was a picture.

She hadn't fully processed until that moment, while looking at the picture, that her brother had been in her apartment! That wasn't an issue in and of itself, she had told him where she hid her spare key. It was the fact that she had been asleep, on top of her kinda, sorta, maybe, but definitely _secret,_ boyfriend who worked for her brother's opposition!

"Oh, you have that cute face you make when you're dreaming. You mind sending that to me?" Laurel looked up to meet Gareth's gaze, wide-eyed with shock.

He looked back at her. "What? No, I do not creepily stare at you while you sleep, but you talk and move a lot when you're dreaming. It wakes me up sometimes."

"That's not the point, Gareth!" Laurel did vow to bring that up again, but not at that moment. "My brother has photographic evidence of the two of us together! Isn't that a cause for concern?!" She was so confused as to why he wasn't as scandalized as she was!

"Well, it's not like he's gonna release it to the press or show my boss. You're his sister, and you work for him. The girl will always look worse than the guy in this kind of situation. It would make him look like an asshole, and an idiot, if he did that."

 _Oh. Well that makes a lot of sense…_ Laurel thought.

"What? Did you think I was going to get all indignant?" There's that half-smirk, and Laurel ducked her head down. "Besides, it's not like we're doing anything inappropriate. I mean, he even got Lily in the picture, so it's kinda obvious what was going on."

"I guess you're right." She looked him in the face again. "Thank you, I actually do feel better now." He smiled back at her.

"Now, since we don't have anywhere to be tomorrow, or a baby to watch, can we move this operation over to a more comfortable venue?" The hopeful, yet suggestive, look in his eyes made Laurel giggle a little. She nodded as she stood, pulling him along to her bed by his hands.

0o0o0

The early morning light filtered through the _very firmly shut, newly screened_ windows behind her bed. Laurel once again came to wakefulness slowly. She was curled up into Gareth's left side, her head pillowed on his shoulder, once again thoroughly enjoying having this moment of peace. But she could feel eyes on her.

"I thought that you didn't creepily stare at me when I'm sleeping?" She raised an eyebrow, and quirked her mouth in a half-smile, never opening her eyes. She heard him chuckle as he lightly ran his fingers up and down her arm, goosebumps forming quickly on her skin in their wake.

"I was not creepily staring at you sleep." He replied in a mockingly indignant tone, and Laurel opened her eyes to look up at him skeptically. "I happened to wake up and see this beautiful woman lying practically on top of me."

"Alright, alright, flattery will get you everywhere, but I'm not on top of you. I'm next to you." She smiled and, closing her eyes, snuggled back into a more comfortable position as he chuckled at her. She felt it rumble in his chest, and it sent little shivers down her spine. They lay there in a contented silence, until Gareth broke it a few minutes later.

"Hey, so I was thinking." She hummed in response. "What would you say to going on an actual date? Like, in public and everything?" Laurel's eyes immediately shot open and she popped up to really look at him. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, unsure what to say for a moment.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I am dead serious." His ears started to turn a little pink under her scrutiny. "Like I said, I was thinking about last night." She raised a single brow. "Not that part. Though if you want to, I am definitely willing talk about that, or perhaps perform an encore?" His self-confident smirk was back in place as his hand slipped under the sheets to rest low on her hips.

"Gareth, I know I'm distracting, but task at hand." But she didn't do anything to move his hands.

"Yeah, yeah. I was talking about that picture your brother took. Or, well, I was thinking about my reaction to it. And I realized I truly wouldn't have cared if your brother showed it to anyone, including my boss." His hands slid up to her waist and he looked her straight in the eyes. "So, what would you say to going on a date with me, in public?"

Laurel felt the smile on her face slowly grow wider as she let everything sink in. Then she leaned down and kissed him. It started out soft, but deepened quickly and they stayed like that for several moments. Gareth pulled away first.

"So, while I enjoyed that immensely, is that a yes or?"

"Yes, you idiot, now shut up and kiss me."

"Sure, why not?" He shrugged, with that smirk that Laurel was completely determined to wipe off his face one way or another that morning, and she pulled his face back to hers.

* * *

 _Hope you like it! Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Let me know :)_


End file.
